problem with focus

[audrey-g]

i am really wrestling with this problem of focus. i mostly shoot children in my family, 1-3 year olds. i am really getting frustrated as almost all shots have the subject's face out of focus and the point of focus lies somewhere near. i use the AF/AE lock which comes on my digital camera, with centre focus. first i focus on the eyes, then recompose the shot.
i have read some threads here that suggest increasing the f-stop to 4 while i use the 3.2 - 3.6 since my camera does not really create the OUF background i wish.
the other options available on my camera are the single/continuous/manual focus. i mostly use single AF. there is a center/multi/area AFmode and a photometry of multi/spot/average.

can anyone please help me sort this out??

[kencaleno]

The only way you will get an out of focus background with a point and shoot camera is to increase the distance from subject to background-Your F3.5 is equal to F10 on a dslr in terms of depth of field.As for faces out of focus-are you using a tripod? If not, when you lock focus,the slightest movement will put your focus out-better to use continuous focus if your camera has it. Regards, Ken

[autofocus]

Originally Posted by audrey-g

i am really wrestling with this problem of focus. i mostly shoot children in my family, 1-3 year olds. i am really getting frustrated as almost all shots have the subject's face out of focus and the point of focus lies somewhere near. i use the AF/AE lock which comes on my digital camera, with centre focus. first i focus on the eyes, then recompose the shot.
i have read some threads here that suggest increasing the f-stop to 4 while i use the 3.2 - 3.6 since my camera does not really create the OUF background i wish.
the other options available on my camera are the single/continuous/manual focus. i mostly use single AF. there is a center/multi/area AFmode and a photometry of multi/spot/average.

can anyone please help me sort this out??

First, can I ask what camera are you using...I suspect it's a DSLR?
I think you should consider a few changes on your setup being that your subjects are moving targets. With AF lock, and single AF, if you, or your subject moves after you focus and re-compose you will have this problem.
On Canons - A1 Servo should help
or
On Nikons - set focus to "C" for constant

Hope this helps

Vinnie

[audrey-g]

thank you ken and vince for your kind advice.
i have a fuji finepix digital camera. i guess its slightly more than a point and shoot but not an slr. i think i should start saving for a dslr!!
as for the tripod, no i do not use it for these kind of shots. i usually take them on the beach or in a public place and i do have to move around. i will try the continuous AF and see what happens...

[Ric Brown]

You could just concentrate on getting a good focus on the subjects and not worry about the ouf background. Then using Photoshop, or a program like Picasa, create the background blur leaving your subjects in focus. That way you have complete control of how much out of focus your background is. Sounds like cheating, but so what?

[audrey-g]

thanks ric, that's what i'm doing now for a background out of focus, but i still have the problem on faces and when i try to sharpen the eyes start to pixelate right away

[autofocus]

Originally Posted by audrey-g

thanks ric, that's what i'm doing now for a background out of focus, but i still have the problem on faces and when i try to sharpen the eyes start to pixelate right away

Audrey, are you shooting at the highest resolution your camera will do?...and if something is significantly out of focus sharpening, or over sharpening will not really help. You always want to maintain sharp focus on the eyes when you shoot...if the rest is soft, it won't matter that much

[audrey-g]

i believe it's the sharpest it can go. take a look at this shot to see what i mean.



the sharpest focus is somewhere in the grass. and this is not the worst shot of them all!! i hand held the camera but she was not moving much. i am sure to have focused on the eyes before recomposing

[autofocus]

Audrey, when I talk about resolution I'm referring to your setting for image quality...do you have your camera set to the largest/fine jpeg settings? These are the settings that not only effect the resolution quality of the image, but will also determine how many pictures you can get on your memory card. Obviously, the better and higher the resolution, the less room for pictures on your memory card. Unfortunately, because your image here is significantly reduced in size and resolution I really can't tell how good your focus on her face is....it does not look bad, but I can't zoom in to check.

[kencaleno]

Yes we really need a 100% crop (500pixels by 500 pixels) to judge sharpness. here I have adjusted contrast and added just a fine sharpening to you image; regards, Ken